Oil prices rallied to their highest levels two and a half years after OPEC+ recently agreed to extend its historic production cuts. On Friday, WTI was trading at $70.91 per barrel while Brent crude was changing hands at $72.69. levels they last touched in 2018. By Wednesday morning WTI was trading above $72 and Brent had climbed above $74. Beginning on May 1, OPEC cut production by 9.7 million barrels per day, with the cuts scheduled to start declining beginning July 1. OPEC+ now says July's production cut will be 9.6 million bpd after Mexico said it remains committed to the group's prior agreement. Consequently, oil inventories that had built up in the middle of last year due to oversupply amid weak demand due to the pandemic now appear to be on pace to fall below historical averages as early as next month. Meanwhile, U.S. supply remains subdued as companies have held back production to conserve cash. OPEC+ is optimistic that shale production won't disrupt the delicate balance it has worked to establish for at least two years.

Saudi Arabia is synonymous with oil, the EU is obsessed with renewable energy, and the U.S. is the world's leading natural gas producer, but there are few countries pursuing all three of these energy sources with as much vigor as the UAE.

Two commodity trading giants are betting big on a Russian oil project in a rare move that could make or break the oil traders’ fates - and oil market observers should be paying close attention. When commodity trading major Trafigura bought a 10-percent stake in Rosneft’s Vostok Oil project, oil prices were trading below $50 per barrel. There were also forecasts that oil demand may never recover to pre-pandemic levels and that oil, in general, was on its way out.